Kurds in Iraq
In Private, Iraqis Support Peace With Israel
In public, they are forced to say the opposite. Even Iraqis living abroad fear Palestinian social shaming should they support peace and normalization with the Jewish state.
Op-eds
Iran vs. Trump: Suleimani’s Legacy, and Khamenei’s Ambitions
The supreme leader and Trump may well end the long-running, region-defining clash. We just don't know yet quite how.
Op-eds
Trump can get both Turkish and Kurdish support in Syria by negotiating peace deal
President Trump’s strategy of getting out of Syria but keeping the oil continues to stir up policy debates and emotions. Opponents of the U.S. withdrawal see this as a betrayal of the Syrian Kurds,...
Op-eds
Referendum Triggers Turkish Vitriol against Kurds – and Jews
Iraqi Kurds voted overwhelmingly on Monday in favor of a referendum on independence for the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) an...
Policy Briefs
Why is Turkey so disjointed over the Iraqi Kurds?
Iraq’s Kurds are preparing ...
Op-eds
If the Kurds Go Broke, It’s Lights Out for Obama’s War on the Islamic State
Here’s a worrying bit of news: America’s best ally in the war against the Islamic State, Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), is nearly broke. That’s a major proble...
Op-eds
Ankara Alone
Too Islamist-friendly for NATO, too pro-European for Russia, too pro-Sunni for Iran, and too pro-democracy for Saudi Arabia, Turkey can’t seem to manage lasting alliances. It’s an iss...
Op-eds
Nixon, Kissinger, and the Shah: A Troika of Realists
There was once a different Iran. At its helm was not a mullah but a monarch — secular, allied with the West, and committed to his country’s development and modernization. In a new boo...
Op-eds
Catastrophic Consensus: A Dissent From Spengler and Mead
Spengler (aka David Goldman) is one of my close friends and a long-time guru. William Russell Mead is just a guru, but I’m an avid fan. So when I find myself disagreeing with bo...
Op-eds
The Brothers Abbas
In the wake of the Arab Spring, U.S. leaders have promised to reverse the United States' long reliance on autocratic, unrepresentative leaders who enrich themselves at the ex...
Op-eds
Terror Strikes Norway
Just one year ago, authorities in Oslo broke up an al Qaeda-directed bomb plot that originated in northern Pakistan. Good intelligence, including intercepted emails between an al Qaeda planner an...
Op-eds
Obama Can Stop the Killing in Syria
The United States has leverage with the murderous Bashar al-Assad; it has simply chosen not to use it.
Op-eds
Understanding Iran
If you read the news carefully, you will find a notable story about Iran every morning. Nine times out of ten it is hilarious. Today’s Iran story is that the head of its armed forces announ...
Op-eds
Deceit
Let’s start with Arthur Herman, a wise and eloquent writer who wrote an important piece for Commentary a while back. Herman’s overall argument was that our attack on Saddam Huss...
Op-eds
Divided They Stand: The Syrian Opposition
His son and successor, Bashar, has failed to manage these divisions. Unfavorable international conditions, colossal foreign policy failures, and a precarious economy have left the regime wi...
Op-eds
Crowning of Nasrallah? – Annan’s Diplomacy Harms the Cause of Peace
BRACE YOURSELF. In the United Nations-brokered farce known as the "cessation of hostilities in Lebanon," we may now be heading for the moment in which Secretary General Kofi Annan jets to Beirut...
Op-eds
Turtle Bay Does Beirut
Brace yourself. In the United Nations-brokered farce known as the “cessation of hostilities in Lebanon,” we may now be heading for the moment in which Secretary-General Kofi Annan jet...
Op-eds
Desert Bigotry
An obstacle to the future of Iraq.
Op-eds
Iraqis Living Abroad
Numbers reflect impressive turnout "One in four Iraq expats to vote," states the BBC, as registration for expatriates closed overseas. The insinuation is clear: not enough Iraqis have re...